Madigan: Consumer complaints down, but ID theft worries rise

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan cut off reporters and dodged questions about her father, Speaker Michael Madigan during a news conference about foreclosures. (Junru Huang)

Illinois residents filed more than 20,000 complaints in 2013 with Illinois’ attorney general, down 22 percent from the previous year, but concerns about data breaches and identity theft are a fast-growing category.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office received 3,009 such complaints in 2013, up from 2,544 the previous year.

The increase in that category came even as the total number of complaints received by Madigan fell, to 20,500 in 2013 from 26,316 in 2012.

Consumers reported incidents of fraudulent charges on existing accounts, thieves opening new credit-card or utility accounts in their names, and instances of bank fraud, such as stolen checks or fraudulent withdrawals made to a victim’s bank accounts.

Madigan said the rise can also be partly attributed to major data breaches reported last year by Target, where data breaches exposed millions of customers’ payment card and personal information to hackers in the past several months, and Advocate Health Care, where personal information for millions of patients risked exposure after the theft of computers.

The top complaint category remained consumer debt, including mortgage lending, debt collections and credit-card practices. That category got 4,340 complaints, down from 7,631 in 2012.

Complaints were also down in most other top 10 categories compared with 2012. Rounding out the top 10: wireless, phone, cable and satellite service, 1,870; remodeling and roof and gutter work, 1,688; used-auto sales, warranties and financing, 1,167; sweepstakes and work-at-home scams, 879; Internet purchases and catalog ordering, 833; consulting and directories and publications fraud, 777; motor vehicle repairs, 526; time shares and travel agents, 439.

Student-loan debt debuted on the list in 2012 but already fell off in 2013, replaced by travel-related complaints.